Award-winning director and longtime Pittsburgh resident George A. Romero is widely regarded as the father of modern zombie movies, thanks to his cult classic “Night of the Living Dead” and other horror films, including several filmed in Western Pennsylvania.
Born in New York City on Feb. 4, 1940, Mr. Romero’s passion for film and art started when he was a child. Growing up, he spent much of his time watching movies, particularly the 1951 British opera film “The Tales of Hoffman,” which influenced him to pursue filmmaking.
He began experimenting with making his own short films as a teenager. During the production of a movie he called “The Man From the Meteor,” 14-year-old George was arrested after he lit a dummy on fire and threw it from a roof. Just a few years later in 1959, he worked on a real movie set for the first time, assisting with lighting and rigging on Alfred Hitchcock’s “North by Northwest.”
In 1957, Mr. Romero moved to Pittsburgh to attend Carnegie Tech (now Carnegie Mellon University). He dropped out after five years to form The Latent Image, a production company, with several of his friends. Together, they filmed commercials and short films until they pooled their money to create their first feature film, “Night of the Living Dead.”
Most of the scenes in “Night of the Living Dead,” which was shot in 35 millimeter black and white film, were filmed in and around Evans City, about 30 miles north of Pittsburgh in rural Butler County. The movie premiered on Oct. 1, 1968, at the Fulton Theater (today’s Byham Theater) in Downtown Pittsburgh and became a huge success despite its relatively small budget of just over $100,000, grossing $30 million worldwide.
Mr. Romero left the “undead” movie genre for a decade to produce films like “The Crazies” and “Martin,” both of which were critically acclaimed but did not achieve the same commercial success as his first.
In 1978, he returned to zombies with “Dawn of the Dead,” which earned $55 million and is considered one of the best films in the “Living Dead” series. Partially filmed in the Monroeville Mall, the film satirically targeted American consumerism. The “Living Dead” series spawned four additional movies — “Day of the Dead” (1985), “Land of the Dead” (2005), “Diary of the Dead” (2007) and “Survival of the Dead” (2008).
Throughout his career, Mr. Romero has written or directed more than 20 films. More recently, he has edged into different media, partnering with video game developers and comics publishers to assist in their productions.
Visitors to the Heinz History Center’s “Pittsburgh: A Tradition of Innovation” exhibition can see artifacts from Mr. Romero’s filmmaking career, including his director’s chair from the 1990s and a slate used during his 1993 film “The Dark Hour.” For more information, visit www.heinzhistorycenter.org.
First Published: August 25, 2016, 4:00 a.m.
